U & D

NPR has produced two excellent audio articles about Native American Boarding Schools. These have just aired in Maine again – the good news is that both can be downloaded and/or printed (in transcript):

1. Part 1 – American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many Americans
2. Part 2 – Indian School a far Cry From the Past

The site contains images and hyperlinks to extend the listening experience. If you can project the page, students can participate in a Guided Reading activity. If you use the print function, you will have a paper copy to use in a variety of reading activities. If you make a CD from the audio or embed the page in a NoteShare notebook, you will archive it for later [directions in this attached file: howtoaudiofiles.pdf] .

I think, however, that the best experience would be listening. Why would we want to do this?

• There are names attached to the people speaking – the experience is personal and it is now or it then and a powerful memory.
• Listening activates the imagination and also any pre-teaching you have done (for example, a K-W-L or a read-a-loud from An Upriver Passamaquoddy or Marlene Carvell’s Sweetgrass Basket.)
• Listening can be repeated.
• Listening can be stopped – with the guarantee that everyone is on the same page.

But why is this topic important to Wabanaki Studies? Because residential schools did happen here, although not in the scope of Canada and our western and central states. It is the concept of the boarding school, however, that you need to explore.

1. The rationale (this is contained in the audio and other files)
2. The impact on Native culture, family, individuals (in the audio files, but also beyond that)
3. Federally funded native boarding schools – today’s policies.

Use Word Wall words like: acculturation, assimilation, language, de-humanization, cultural continuity, and racism in your discussions.

Ask Essential Questions about Power – you can take these right from the LD291 Essential Understandings.

Ask also:

• In what ways have the Wabanakis been both forcefully & gradually separated from their worldview and expected to adopt a non-Native worldview? (this is a general question that you should make specific to each nation)
• What do we know about the life of the _________________ today? How does it relate to the audio stories?
• What is the purpose/value/benefit of Native Boarding Schools today, as described in the audio?
• [difficult] Would the life of the _____________________ be improved if there were private, state or federally funded boarding schools for Maine’s Wabanakis? Would it make a difference who funded the schools? Would it make a difference if the boarding schools were off-reservation or on-reservation?
• How are the individual Wabanaki nations and bands meeting the needs of their culture for continuity?
• Is an apology enough?

Here are a few resources for you to explore:

• Daniel Paul’s (Micmac) discussion of Canadian Indian Residential Schools
• Laura Brooks (Passamaquoddy) has written about the Passamaquoddy resistance to U.S. Federal Indian Policy and to Maine’s anti-Native policies.
• American Memories interactive lesson on Indian Boarding Schools.
• Australia’s Prime Minister Apologizes

Has there been a Maine or Massachusetts or national apology? I don’t know – stay tuned.